Last spring Daria won a grant provided by the University of Sussex after she presented her thesis research plan.

“I research interactive education and how changes in the society are reflected in changes in the educational process in particular”, says Daria. “Children need to learn to analyze information, and the need to understand the information leads to transforming educational practices. Also, the technology moves fast. Communication via the Internet allows you to quickly exchange information and make decisions quickly. Teachers’ roles are shifting to the teacher as a facilitator and friend, instead of an old-school teacher-supervisor.”

For a month this student was learning the educational methods offered by professors of the University of Sussex and then modified them for Siberia, keeping in mind the cultural and language differences.

Mikhail Neverov spent around two months in the United Kingdom. He worked on theoretical machine learning under the supervision of Professor Thomas Nowotny and Dr. Esin Yavuz.

"It is an opportunity to perform practical research at one of renowned research institutions", says Mikhail. "I'm glad I put many TSU courses to good use, such as the probability theory and mathematical statistics, mathematical analysis, discrete mathematics, computational mathematics, and more”.

Mikhail plans to continue his work with his temporary research supervisor.

In 2015 TSU and the University of Sussex signed a memorandum of understanding. They also agreed to mutually participate in winter and summer schools and other forms of academic exchange beginning in January 2016.

The University of Sussex summer school presents about 20 various educational modules. Every year until February, students have the opportunity to apply for a grant and to study and represent Tomsk State University.